146 Allen's naturalist's library. 



in the " Field," is not to be depended on, for the great majority 

 of young females — by which we mean birds of the year — have 

 a well-developed chestnut horse-shoe, and in some, for instance 

 birds from Leicestershire, it is quite as large and perfectly de- 

 veloped as in the majority of adult male birds. Young females 

 from Norfolk and Suffolk are, however, generally exceptions to 

 this rule, and, like the majority of old females, have merely a 

 few chestnut spots on the middle of the lower breast, and in 

 this part of England it is rare to meet with anything like a 

 perfect horse-shoe in young birds of this sex, while examples 

 may be found without a trace of chestnut, and are commonly 

 known as birds with a white horse-shoe. As remarked above, 

 the birds of the year, whether male or female, are easily distin- 

 guished from old birds by having the first flight-feather pointed 

 instead of rounded at the extremity. The colour of the feet 

 and toes is also, of course, a good character for distinguishing 

 young birds from old ones in the earlier part of the season, but 

 at the commencement of hard weather the yellowish-brown feet, 

 denoting youth, having generally changed to bluish-grey, are 

 perfectly similar to those of the adult, while the pointed first 

 flight-feather is retained till the following autumn moult. The 

 only reliable character for distinguishing the sexes at all ages, 

 except in very young birds in their first plumage, is in the mark- 

 ings of the lesser and median wing-coverts and scapulars, the buff 

 cross-bars in the female being an unmistakable mark, and quite 

 sufficient to distinguish her from the male at a glance. It is 

 now some years since we first drew attention to these rather 

 important differences which had hitherto been entirely over- 

 looked, and we may now safely say, that though many people, 

 especially sportsmen, were at first disinclined to believe in this 

 character being a sexual difference, and tested it severely, it 

 has, so far, never been found to fail. To convince gamekeepers 

 of these facts is in most cases a hopeless task — that the horse- 

 shoe mark on the breast is a certain sign of the male is " bred 

 in the bone," having been handed down as gospel for genera- 



